Driving to Work is Hazardous to Your Health

Do only fat people watch The Biggest Loser? I guess that would be like saying only single people watch The Bachelor, or lost people watch Lost.

I drive into work every day wading myself through mundane traffic in its crappy stop and go motions wondering if there is a possibility that I could ever enjoy being in such nonsense! What would it take? I guess I could be chauffeured and the possibilities from that point are endless. But that's just unrealistic and won't bother entertaining such babble. What kind of job would it take to enjoy such a torturous part of my life? A video game or energy drink tester, or maybe an Olympic athlete? Or maybe I own my own extremely successful business and my drive consists of getting into a go-cart and zipping down the hall to my office! As Sean would say, "Just thinking..."

I started playing in my tennis league a little over 2 weeks ago. So far I'm in first place. I've played three opponents beating them all. My left shoulder is pretty beat up though. I'm beginning to think I have cancer in it or some bone calcification growing. I prefer the latter. The Australian Open is on right now. Federer and Nadal are through to the semis so it should be a good final!

Our renters are moving out the Feb 15th so we posted the house with some pics on Craigslist Monday. We received an awesome response within the first 3hrs of posting it! Who knew such a small house would be in such high demand!! We were able to get a couple with their two kids to sign a 2 yr lease yesterday! So it's a big load off our minds and real blessing!

Rach is talking with a long time friend today about a business opportunity with some wedding stuff. We don't know the specifics, but it's exciting that people want her for her talent.

Lacie and Oz are almost potty trained. They've pretty much been waking up dry. They still need to be reminded throughout the day and taken to the bathroom. Oz and Sean go down to bed really well. Lacie on the other hand has a very hard time. So we have been implementing some serious discipline the past couple nights.

The other day Sean was at school and was really excited to be outside with "his girls" and accidently hit a swing set pole smack dab on his forehead! It left a pretty good sized knot, I could feel his pain. The teacher also said that he said he was going to marry Abigale! I thought that was the funniest thing. I'm not for sure on this, but I think it's crazy that Lacie and Oz are going to start pre-school in 7 months!

9 Year Anniversary

Rach and I went on a much needed "staycation" last weekend for our 9 year anniversary. It was tons of fun! We left the kids at home with Ellisa and trusted she wouldn't let anything happen to them. Boy were we wrong! Just Kidding! She took care of everything while we were gone. We really are lucky to have someone like her in our lives who is willing to take care of the kids for two days. The trip was all day Saturday and Sunday. I won't go into too much detail, but we most certainly did some crazy things. Okay, I'll go into some detail.

We hiked Camelback mountain. It was harder than I thought it would be, but nothing Rach and I couldn't handle. We made it to the top and by the time we made it to the bottom we both felt our joints telling us it was time to stop. I hate getting older! Holy Crap! I'm going to be 30 in two months! Anyway, Rach has many more pics regarding our trip on Facebook, but here's one we got about a quarter of the way up.

After the hike we were starving so we headed to Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale and ate at Z'Tajas and had a little of this and that...

Afterwards we did some shopping, then went to the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak to check in (same hotel as our first night up 9 years ago!). The hotel provided a "Manicure and Margaritas" service. It would be my first manicure experience so I thought I'd amuse the idea, the margarita helped my decision of course. Afterwards Rach said the manicure was done very poorly and that we'll have to try it again at a real salon. We'll see about that... my nails haven't felt the same since. I think my typing is being affectedddesestedsdfe, so I can't be held responsible what's typed from here on out...

Later Sat night we went on to see True Grit (John Wayne remake). Really good movie. I recommend it. For those of you who have seen the flick and found it as hard as I did to understand the Marshall, then you should find this quick video amusing.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1945368

We wanted to make sure we got to bed early for the early morning hot air balloon ride Sunday morning, but I really wanted to enjoy the hotels hot tub. The hotel was awesome because they brought us some chocolate covered strawberries while we were in the hot tub! We also met a really nice couple that drove from AL for the college championship game.

We finally got to bed around 11:30 and knew it was going to be hard to wake up at 5:30.

We met the hot air balloon group at Deer Valley airport and from there took a van north on I17 a few miles and got off somewhere between Happy Valley Rd and Pinnacle Peak. When we arrived they were working on the balloons.

Getting in the balloon basket and feeling the ground move under our feet before we took off really got my adrenaline going. Seeing up into the balloon and seeing all the ropes made me really wonder how old the ropes were. In any case, I'm still here to tell the story so that's good.

We made it up around 5000' high. It was a great experience that I think everyone should add to their bucket list. It was much more calm than I expected. A perfect day with 9 mile an hour winds. We were up in the air about 90 minutes or so. It was cool to see the pilot steer the balloon with specific ropes in front of him. Great to see low tech used in such a high tech era. He did however have all these high tech instruments in front of him.

It was a really smooth landing, smooth enough that I took a video of it on my camera. After the landing they setup some tables and put together a really nice breakfast with some champagne. The pilot told a story about how the early French aerostats landed in a field and went up in flames. The peasants wanted to kill them because they thought they were demons. The French were saved because the champagne they offered as a gift had the king's seal on it. After that the king decreed that every flight should have champagne.

We went to Anthem and picked up some clothes for us and toys for the kids. We bought them the robotic claws (minus the tree)...

and quickly found out that when they get a hold of your wrist it's really annoying and painful to get it off. After Anthem we saw the movie, Social Network. Another good one that I'd recommend. We got home around 6:30 Sunday evening.

We started potty training the twins as of Monday of last week. So almost two weeks. Lacie gets excited when she goes and so she stops going and minutes later when we think she's done she has an accident. Austin doesn't have any problem with number 1, but has mastered pushing out one poop pebble at a time to get a treat for each one. Masters of manipulation at the age of 2.

Rach has her cousin and second cousin from the east coast flying in this Friday to run the PF Chang's half marathon on Sunday. They'll be staying with us so it's our duty to introduce them to real Mexican food. I hope they get adequate sleep and the kids don't wake them up. It'll be Sean's first bunk experience with Austin.